Guest Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 (edited) I am needing some Chemistry recommendations for my my ds that will be in 10 grade next year. I did read the pinned Chemistry post above, but was hoping for some more personalized answers. Outsourcing is probably not an option for us next year. So I really need a course that I can easily do at home. My ds is doing Apologia Biology this year for 9th grade, and it is really dry and boring. At the moment he hates science, and I would love to find him a course that is more interesting. Can you recommend a Chemistry course that is enjoyable (not dry), and easily doable at home? Edited March 7, 2016 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Sounds like Friendly Chemistry to me. Easiest labs to do at home, but still hits all the topics of high school chemistry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 (edited) Sounds like Friendly Chemistry to me. Easiest labs to do at home, but still hits all the topics of high school chemistry. Would Friendly Chemistry be a fun course? The book looked pretty plain to me from the samples I looked at in the past. I will take a look again. Edited March 7, 2016 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Some that I am considering right now are Spectrum Chemistry, Chemistry 101 (maybe with something added to round it out), and Mr. Q's Advanced Chemistry. Does anyone have any experience with these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Spectrum is not a "fun" course - unless your DS really likes tons of labs, including some very time consuming ones. It was a solid program, and the math provided a solid basis for moving on to AP Chem for my DD that did that. The author's writing style became more irritating to my kids as the course went on, though. I think there's only so much "fun" you can put into a solid high school chemistry program. "Friendly Chemistry" means it's not as bogged down as a fat high school textbook. It's broken down into friendly little chunks so it's not intimidating, but it's not a barrel of laughs. It might be more fun to do some of the hands on stuff in a group if you have a sibling or friend or two to join in. It meets your "easy to do at home" criteria with flying colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 we are doing Friendly Chemistry next year in our home. In fact, I just bought it. I have been speaking to author of the program through emails. He has been very kind and gracious to answer all of my questions. Although I don't know if it will be "fun"...I do believe it will get the job done....and done well. We also are currently using Apologia Biology and also find it dry and boring. So I have high hopes for Friendly Chemistry. If we really like it, I hope to buy "Friendly Biology" next year for my other children....which he is currently working on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Thank you both. I am not sure I was clear before in what I was asking. By easy to do at home I just meant no super complicated labs using hard to find lab equipment. I remember when I took Honors Biology and Chemistry in High School I loved it. Chemistry was one of my favorite classes. Apologia has been so dry and boring for my ds....I was just hoping to find something more interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Friendly Chemistry uses only household items for their labs...and Joey, the author said they didn't put a lab with each lesson just to include a lab with each lesson. He said the labs were carefully chosen...so they actually made sense. From reading the reviews of FC, it appears to not be dry or boring. Email Joey, he is a great guy and will answer your questions and address your concerns. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Thank you both. I am not sure I was clear before in what I was asking. By easy to do at home I just meant no super complicated labs using hard to find lab equipment. Friendly Chemistry is all kitchen labs, with demos on the website under "Labs" They get the concepts across using household materials. Spectrum has a lab kit with all the hard-to-find stuff included, but the list of labs is really long and some of them take all day or even multiple days. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless your kid just loves labs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dina in Oklahoma Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 You might search for CM style science, science for poets, or nontraditional science. Questhollow maybe??? Best wishes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Togo Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 (edited) We're using Mr. Q and like it a lot. I am not a science teacher, so I can't compare it with other chem courses, but it has been easy to teach, and dd enjoys it. We do chemistry three school days and the kitchen labs on Saturday. Mr. Q has been a good fit for us, and it isn't expensive. No special lab materials needed. Edited March 9, 2016 by 1Togo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I just ordered Spectrum Chemistry for my dd and I am pleased with how it looks. I was a little overwhelmed when I opened the box, but I spent some time going through it yesterday and I read the first couple of sections and it looks very interesting to me. I will try to report back in a couple of weeks after we've done some of the labs, so I can give a better review. My dd is not very interested in science, but I'm hoping that if I keep up with the reading in the text and discuss it with her, that she'll appreciate what she's learning. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wehave8 Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 On 3/7/2016 at 5:46 PM, kfeusse said: we are doing Friendly Chemistry next year in our home. In fact, I just bought it. I have been speaking to author of the program through emails. He has been very kind and gracious to answer all of my questions. Although I don't know if it will be "fun"...I do believe it will get the job done....and done well. We also are currently using Apologia Biology and also find it dry and boring. So I have high hopes for Friendly Chemistry. If we really like it, I hope to buy "Friendly Biology" next year for my other children....which he is currently working on. Did you do both Friendly Chemistry and Friendly Biology? Pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 3 minutes ago, wehave8 said: Did you do both Friendly Chemistry and Friendly Biology? Pam I looked at Friendly Bio but decided not to do it. Since my kid wasn't super sciencey, I actually had her (and now my other 2 kids too) do Biology on Virtual Homeschool Group. They used Apologia, but it's a live class....so that make it way more doable and understandable than just trying to work through the book on our own. On a side note, We did the Friendly Chemistry and it worked pretty well. So I am planning on using it with my last high schooler this fall..but I think I will use the teaching videos as well (those weren't available the first time we used the program). Does that help? Kathy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wehave8 Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 (edited) On 6/21/2019 at 10:06 AM, kfeusse said: I looked at Friendly Bio but decided not to do it. Since my kid wasn't super sciencey, I actually had her (and now my other 2 kids too) do Biology on Virtual Homeschool Group. They used Apologia, but it's a live class....so that make it way more doable and understandable than just trying to work through the book on our own. On a side note, We did the Friendly Chemistry and it worked pretty well. So I am planning on using it with my last high schooler this fall..but I think I will use the teaching videos as well (those weren't available the first time we used the program). Does that help? Kathy Thank you for the update. I had all 3 courses (Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy) with videos given to me to review. I am planning on starting with Biology next school year. I cannot find enough reviews for them to convince me that I really want to do them for our high school science. I don't think that our boys are going for STEMS programs, but one is very good in math and I don't want to shortchange him if he changes his mind. It's good to hear that you will be doing the Chemistry again. Pam Edited April 13, 2021 by wehave8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wehave8 Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 20 minutes ago, kfeusse said: I looked at Friendly Bio but decided not to do it. Since my kid wasn't super sciencey, I actually had her (and now my other 2 kids too) do Biology on Virtual Homeschool Group. They used Apologia, but it's a live class....so that make it way more doable and understandable than just trying to work through the book on our own. On a side note, We did the Friendly Chemistry and it worked pretty well. So I am planning on using it with my last high schooler this fall..but I think I will use the teaching videos as well (those weren't available the first time we used the program). Does that help? Kathy Have you seen this Blog post?... https://www.joyinourjourney.com/whats-new-blog/friendly-chemistry-for-homeschooled-high-schoolers-review-and-giveaway "In addition to my initial scanning of the materials, I decided to select one chapter and compare it to the Apologia, Bob Jones, and RealScience4Kids textbooks I already owned. Guess which chapter I selected? Quantum Mechanics! (Dad, you would be proud!) ☺ First, I read through Friendly Chemistry's chapter on Quantum Mechanics. Um, okay. That seemed pretty straightforward and easily understandable. Next, I read through Apologia's chapter on Quantum Mechanics. Say what? Oh my goodness! It was explained in such a confusing, complicated manner that I wouldn't have really had a clue what was going on if I hadn't first read Friendly Chemistry's explanation. Well, surely Bob Jones' Chemistry book would be easier to understand Quantum Mechanics, right? No way! I couldn't believe how complicated both high school chemistry texts were and how they made the concept of Quantum Mechanics so difficult to understand! I was sold on Friendly Chemistry." That was part of what intrigued me about Friendly Science. I understand that some programs may be more in-depth or 'rigorous', but if the student doesn't understand what they are suppose to be learning, and they just answer questions by memorization, what's the sense? And, I don't like when people label a program 'for learning disabled' either. (not saying you did this) I hope this program works out for us! Pam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 For what it's worth...my daughter (who is not mathy in any way shape or form) struggled with the last couple chapters of the book, so I hired our local PS high school science teacher to help her finish the course....and he told me he thought the book was quite good. In fact, there was one little "trick" that my DD had learned and the teacher was so impressed he planned on taking it back to his classroom the following year. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wehave8 Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 2 minutes ago, kfeusse said: For what it's worth...my daughter (who is not mathy in any way shape or form) struggled with the last couple chapters of the book, so I hired our local PS high school science teacher to help her finish the course....and he told me he thought the book was quite good. In fact, there was one little "trick" that my DD had learned and the teacher was so impressed he planned on taking it back to his classroom the following year. YAY!!! I am hoping to 'expose it' more for others! Thank you for sharing that. Pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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